2019 News

Diverse Issues in Higher Education awarded the 2019 Dr. John Hope Franklin Award to Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and African American Studies at Harvard University and AHA life member. The award, which recognizes contributions to higher education, will be presented on March 11, 2019, during the 101st centennial meeting of the American Council on Education (ACE) in Philadelphia.

On February 11, the AHA sent a letter to the leadership of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to reaffirm its support for the autonomy of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The AHA cautioned against reforms that would subject academy funding to approval from ministerial authorities. The separation of the Academy's research institutes and publications from politics is a crucial cornerstone of the institution's international integrity and the credibility of its historical scholarship.

On February 11, AHA executive director Jim Grossman sent a letter to Mayor John O'Reilly of Dearborn, Michigan, protesting the dismissal of Bill McGraw, editor of the city's historical commission's journal, for publishing an article about Henry Ford's anti-Semitism.

David Blight, Class of 1954 Professor of American History at Yale University, AHA member, and former AHA councilor, was awarded the 2019 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize for his book Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. This annual award honors a work that enhances the general public’s understanding of the Civil War era, and the prize committee praised Blight for“the most comprehensive and multi-dimensional biography of Frederick Douglass ever written.”

On January 31, Kimberly Phillips-Fein, associate professor of history at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University and AHA member, published an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education examining the evolution of conservative criticism and distrust of the university system.

The AHA fully supports broad access to the resources required to create new knowledge and share it as widely as possible. However, concerns about the principles set out in Plan S have led the AHA to write a letter to Coalition S members regarding the potential for harm to humanities scholarship.

The New Yorker published an interview with Sophie Rosenfeld, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and AHA vice president, Research, who discusses the relationship between American democracy and the idea of truth in the era of social media and "fake news." Rosenfeld examines the way in which notions of truth have been contested in American history and emphasizes the continued importance of asking what is true and "How do you know what's true?"

On January 24, the Association sent a letter to Daniel Ortega Saavedra, president of the Republic of Nicaragua, articulatingconcern about the imprisonment of Professor Ricardo Baltodano Marcenaro of the Universidad Politécnica de Nicaragua and the charges leveled against him. The AHA cited the UN High Commission for Human Rights’ inquiry into the case and urged Baltodano’s immediate release.

Liz Lehfeldt, Mandel Professor in Humanities at Cleveland State University and former AHA vice president, Teaching, responded to the declining number of history majors with her thoughts in a January 9 Inside Higher Ed article, "Why Study History?" Lehfeldt asks, "What story does our pedagogy tell about the significance of history and why students should care?"

Allan J. Lichtman Published in USA Today

<p>On Sept. 26, Allan J. Lichtman, Distinguished Professor of History at American University, published an <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/04/18/impeach-trump-nixon-clinton-republicans-allan-lichtman-column/100573416/">op-ed</a> in USA Today, based on his new book, The Embattled Vote in America. &ldquo;The Founders unwisely gave states control of the vote,&rdquo; he wrote. The problem today &ldquo;is not fraudulent voting but the suppression of voting" through &ldquo;stringent voter photo ID laws, draconian purges of registration rolls, the disenfranchisement of former felons and restrictions on the opportunity to register.&rdquo;</p>